When comparing Sony X900E 49" (XBR49X900E) vs Sony X720E 49" (KD49X720E), the Slant community recommends Sony X900E 49" (XBR49X900E) for most people. In the question“What are the best TVs?”Sony X900E 49" (XBR49X900E) is ranked 5th while Sony X720E 49" (KD49X720E) is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Sony X900E 49" (XBR49X900E) is:

The X900E looks true-to-life with really deep blacks, clear details, and captivating colors.
Pictures look realistic with lots of details. There’s great depth to them and you’ll be able to see everything in the picture stand out.
Dark scenes are excellent with nice shadow details that are not overly dark to the point where some details get drowned out. This is thanks to really deep black levels, enabled by the panel’s contrast ratio of about 5500:1 which means it can produce blacks that are 5500 times darker than the brightest white. This can be pushed even further to over 6500 with local dimming.
The colors are lifelike and accurate even without any calibration by the user. They will look really vibrant even in bright scenes because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~500 nits for SDR & ~550 nits for HDR.
Even in a decently lit environment, the X900E’s picture quality can still hold up as the panel is great at handling reflections and it can get bright enough to fight off glare.

Pros

Pro

Excellent picture quality

Pictures look realistic with lots of details. There’s great depth to them and you’ll be able to see everything in the picture stand out.

Dark scenes are excellent with nice shadow details that are not overly dark to the point where some details get drowned out. This is thanks to really deep black levels, enabled by the panel’s contrast ratio of about 5500:1 which means it can produce blacks that are 5500 times darker than the brightest white. This can be pushed even further to over 6500 with local dimming.

The colors are lifelike and accurate even without any calibration by the user. They will look really vibrant even in bright scenes because of the panel’s high peak brightness levels of ~500 nits for SDR & ~550 nits for HDR.

Even in a decently lit environment, the X900E’s picture quality can still hold up as the panel is great at handling reflections and it can get bright enough to fight off glare.

Pro

Excellent for HDR content

On top of the excellent picture quality, the X900E has everything essential to an immersive HDR experience: decent local dimming, great coverage of HDR colors, and high HDR peak brightness level.

Its excellent black levels are further improved with local dimming, which can make parts of the screen darker when the image calls for it. This results in an increase in overall picture quality with black levels becoming much deeper, so highlights will stand out further.

The panel can reproduce the wide range of colors required for true HDR playback because of its wide color gamut, which covers ~65% of the standard colors required for HDR according to the Rec. 2020 color space. This is considered great for reproducing HDR details, and it can display these colors accurately at different brightness levels.

Along with the the high peak brightness level of ~550 nits, HDR scenes will look stunning and you'll be able to see HDR details really pop.

Pro

Great at handling glare

Even in a decently lit room, the X900E's picture quality will remain more or less the same as in a dark room.

The colors will still look vibrant because the panel is bright enough to fight off glare. It has peak brightness levels of ~500 nits for SDR & ~550 nits for HDR, and reflections are also significantly reduced by the panel's semi-gloss finish.

Pro

Great versatility

Apart from being an excellent TV for movies, the X900E is a decent choice for gaming and sports thanks to its decent input lag, low motion blur, great screen uniformity, and a 120 Hz native refresh rate that makes images look smoother.

The input lag of ~35ms is sufficient for most gamers, apart from competitive ones, to stay in sync with what's on the screen. The low motion blur of ~11ms and a refresh rate of 120 Hz ensures that everything will look smooth - fast-moving objects won't leave any trails on the screen.

It’s also viable for watching sports because the panel also has no issues with displaying large, same-color objects on screen, like football fields.

Pro

Excellent at handling highly dynamic content

The X900E can display fast-paced or rapidly-moving objects very well without any trails behind it. The panel only requires ~11ms to fully change the pixels color, which eliminates virtually all motion blur. It also has a native refresh rate of 120Hz that makes images look smoother.

Pro

Interface is ads-free

There are no ads on the X900E's interface.

Pro

Great ecosystem of third-party apps

The X900E runs on Android TV that has access to the Google Play Store. The Play Store has a nice selection of apps, but normal Android apps won't work unless they support Android TV.

Pro

Virtually no reflections

The X900E's panel has a semi-gloss finish that significantly reduces the intensity of glare.

Pro

Google Assistant is available

The X900E runs on Android TV that has Google Assistant. It has voice commands that are pretty useful as you can open apps with it, ask for the weather, and even turn the TV off.

Pro

Excellent at upscaling low-res content

The X900E can upscale 480p, 720p, 1080p content to 4K with no issues. All the details are preserved and most won't notice any imperfections.

Pro

Excellent for watching sports

The Sony X720E has all the bits and pieces needed to deliver the excellent experience of watching sports and other fast-paced content. The TV has good control over its motion blur, excellent color uniformity, and wide viewing angle.

The X720E needs only 7.5 ms for its pixels to change their color; as a result, fast-moving objects don’t leave long trails on the screen, meaning that the motion blur effect is almost negligible.

Good color uniformity is another parameter that really makes a difference when watching sports. It allows the TV to display beautiful and uniform sports fields and pitches, without any unwanted artifacts. The maximum color deviation of this TV is below 2.5%, which means that the TV can sustain stable and uniform colors throughout its screen. The X720E has the best color uniformity in its range.

Pro

Great for bright rooms

The combination of reasonably high peak brightness and semi-gloss screen finish allows this TV to deal with reflections and glare efficiently. Its 340 nits of brightness are more than what its direct competitors, including The VIZIO M-series and Samsung MU6300 offer. Furthermore, as the X720E diffuses up to 97.6% of ambient light, it does not suffer from reflections.

Pro

Excellent viewing angles

The IPS panel of the Sony X720E gives you an extra bit of flexibility when it comes to finding a good viewing spot as its maximum viewing angle is 41 degrees; a double of what the competitors with VA panels can offer.

Pro

Ads-free main interface

The main interface of the smart OS does not feature advertisements or sponsored content.

Pro

Excellent for upscaling

This TV does a fantastic job when it comes to upscaling low-resolution content. In a nutshell, it can upscale 480p, 720p, and 1080p content to 4K resolution while preserving details and sharp edges. Great for those with a collection of old DVDs or Blu-ray disks.

Pro

Well-rounded inputs

Regarding connectivity, this TV is has everything you'd currently want. It has three HDCP 2.2 compliant HDMI 2.0 ports, digital and analog audio output ports, and an Ethernet port. Additionally, as the TV has a composite input interface, you can enjoy playing your retro consoles, such as Nintendo or Sega without having to go through the hassle of signal conversion. HDMI, USB, and analog coaxial ports are situated on the side of the TV so you won’t have any problem accessing them even if it’s mounted on a wall.

Pro

No problems with image retention

Unlike the majority of OLED panels, this LED TV does not suffer from image retention problems. You can leave the TV on for long periods without having to worry about pixel damage.

Pro

Suitable for viewing up-front

The reasonably small panel size of 43-inch means you can still be comfortable looking at the screen up close. Therefore, you can conveniently use this TV as a computer monitor and sit as close as 2.2 feet away from it.

Pro

The stand does not take up too much space

The 43-inch model of Sony X720E does not take up too much space on a work desk as the TV comes with a compact, 9.4-inch by 21.9-inch stand.

Pro

Makes an excellent computer monitor

The Sony X720E makes an excellent computer monitor because it can smoothly display sharp and crisp images since the TV has full 4:4:4 color support, short input lag, and well-handled motion blur.

The full 4:4:4 color support allows the X720E to process non-compressed, computer-generated video inputs. Therefore, the TV can display sharp and crisp images, without any detail loss. This is especially noticeable while working with text and other vector graphics.

Additionally, the TV’s input lag of 19.7 ms ensures that it takes less than 20 ms for a TV to display an image change after you press a button. Such delay is almost unnoticeable to a human's eye.

Pro

Excellent for console gaming

The combination of handled motion blur and low input lag makes this 4K60 TV a great companion to the latest generation consoles, like the Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, and Wii U. Additionally, the TV’s full HDR support allows you to fully experience HDR-enhanced games such as World of Tanks, FIFA 18, etc.

Cons

Con

Not suitable for group watching

The X900E has a narrow viewing angle that makes it unsuitable for group watching.

Its picture quality gets worse when viewed from off-center angles. At ≥20° away from the center, the blacks start degrading into greys and colors will start looking dull. Brightness levels start decreasing at ≥50° away from the center.

Con

Bad sound quality

The sound quality of X900E's built-in speakers is bad. It can't produce much bass and sounds rather flat. There is also noticeable distortion at high volumes.

Con

Lacks support for Dolby Vision

The X900E currently only supports the HDR10 format for HDR content.

Con

Dark scenes look shallow

Due to the really low native contrast ratio of 907:1, dark scenes look washed out if the TV is placed in a dark environment.

Con

Requires an external power brick

Both the 43-inch and 49-inch models of the Sony X720E have large and bulky external power bricks. Bulky PSUs can be a hassle to deal with especially if you’re mounting your TV on a wall.

Con

Lacks Dolby Vision support

When it comes to HDR content, the X720E cannot display Dolby Vision-compliant media as it is only limited to HDR10 content.

Con

Can’t fight judder in 60 Hz signal

The Sony X720E can't handle judder in 24p content sourced from the 60p/60i devices, like a cable or satellite box, or Apple TV. Such content contains so-called '2:3 judder' which means that the frame distribution among the timeline is inconsistent.

Con

Not suitable for competitive gaming

While this TV has noticeably smaller input lag than the overwhelming majority of TVs on the market, it still can not compete with rapid TN monitors when it comes to fast and competitive computer gaming.

Con

Can’t unleash full potential of HDR content

Even though this TV does support HDR10 media, the low HDR peak brightness, poor native contrast, lack of local dimming, and lack of wide color gamut severely limit the quality of HDR playback. Even some lower tier TVs will produce higher quality HDR images.

Con

Built-in speakers don’t sound right

The X720E comes with an integrated 20W 2.0 stereo speaker system. While it can get pretty loud, peaking at the sound pressure level of 100 dB, the quality of sound is very weak, especially when it comes to bass. The speakers sound unclear and muddy.

Con

Non-intuitive smart OS

Unlike other Sony TVs, the X720E has a custom, Linux based operating system which runs the Opera TV application store. The OS is unintuitive and confusing to use.

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